Riley Freeman Joins Wrestling
by CKingwill
Summary: In 6th grade, Riley decides to wrestle and not play basketball. I got the idea from having wrestled for 4 years and grew to love the sport. Note: I haven't really edited this story a lot lately and when I did, it sort of jumped around a lot in terms of timeline. I'll see how this story is received. Enjoy. Kid characters middle school aged.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Inside Wuncler Park in downtown Woodcrest, the local basketball court was the sight of some friendly competition. 11-year-old Riley Freeman checked the basketball to his best friend and partner-in-crime, 11-year-old Cindy McPhearson. "Game on nigga!" he shouted at the blond white girl. Cindy grinned and moved forward in a sly way, avoiding Riley's attempts to cut her off. "Am I just too fast fo yo ass, Reezy?" she taunted. Cindy attempted a dunk but missed. She recovered immediately and laid the ball up before Riley could even protect the hoop. "Damn boy, that's now 12 straight games where I've beaten yo ass!" Cindy declared with pride. Riley scowled.

"Man, I be just trippin'. I ain't on my game today."

"That's what you said yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that! Face it, you suck! I be all up in yo ass, winning. Money flows, I glow nigga!"

"Pfff. Whatever nigga" Riley muttered before walking off of the court and sitting on a bench. He sighed and took a swig from his bottle of red Gatorade. He and Cindy had just recently started sixth grade. Cindy went to a separate middle school than Riley. Riley was at Woodcrest Central and Cindy was at Woodcrest South. Riley intended to make Woodcrest Central Middle School's basketball team once he reached seventh grade. Right now, he felt uncertain about that goal.

"Hey Reezy, you might want to think about finding another sport dawg. Ball just don't seem to be your game. Never seems to have been." Riley hung his head and thought about Cindy's suggestion.

"Man, well what do I do instead, C-Murph? There ain't a lot of other real sports for real niggas like Young Reezy."

"Well, there's football."

"Eh. Too lazy."

"Tennis?"

"White boy sport."

"Gymnastics?"

"Gay."

"Soccer?"

"I don't wanna run around like some bitch nigga, chasing a ball."

"Swimming?"

"Nope."

"Baseball?"

"Fuck no. Too much like kickball."

"Wrestling?" Riley finally looked up.

"So…. WWE shit, right?" he asked.

"Hell no! I mean real wrestling! Fuck WWE, that's fo' faggots. I'm referring to scholastic wrestling. World's toughest sport too!"

"Toughest? Man, it don't sound that tough."

"Trust me nigga, I know it is."

"How would you know?"

"I'm a wrestler." Riley stood up, surprised.

"You? You're a bitch! You can't wrestle! I thought it was a dudes-only sport!"

"No, fuck you bitch. Plenty girls do it. It's great! You should try it. I'm wrestling this year at Woodcrest South. Maybe our teams will see each other."

"I thought you was gonna be shootin' hoops."

"I can still do that. I wanna wrestle this year though. This'll be my third year so I really wanna do well."

"Man, I don't like the sound of wrestling. It sound gay."

Cindy frowned at Riley's remark. "Just because I'm a wrestler, don't mean I'm gay. I'm just tough and I like whoopin' dudes' asses. Just try it. Maybe you'll like it" she suggested.

"Hmmph. Fine. I'll try it. But that don't mean I'll actually wrestle. I'll just give it a go. And if I think it's gay, than I'm out."

"Fine by me nigga. See ya later." Cindy picked up her gym bag and her basketball and left the court. Riley paused in his own packing. Recently, he began to note what felt like puberty starting to happen. As a sixth grader now, he had already grown to be about 4' 11 and weighed about 95 pounds. What also came with puberty was a stronger interest in girls. What made Riley pause was Cindy. He watched her walking away and noticed that her butt looked nicer than usual. It appeared to be getting more curved from what Riley could see from his vantage point. Riley grinned, thinking that Cindy's body was probably changing too. He then finished packing and walked back home.

Riley had just walked into his house and closed the door, when almost as if on cue, his grandfather, Robert Freeman greeted him with a string of commands. "Boy, where you been at?! It's 5:30 pm and I wanted you home from school at 4:00! Whatever! Just sit yo black ass on the couch. I need to have a talk with you and your brother." Riley scowled at Robert, set his bag down, took his shoes off, and sat down next to his older brother, Huey. Huey was now 13 years old and was in eighth grade.

"Where have you been? I thought you had a history project to work on" said Huey. Riley laughed at his afro-haired, older brother's question.

"Nigga, you think I'm gonna work on some gay project? Hell no. I was shootin' hoops with C-Murph at the park because I'm a real nigga."

"And I'm sure you lost. As usual" Huey remarked.

"Nigga, shut up! You gay!" Riley shouted, glaring at his brother.

"Alright boys" Robert said when he finally entered the living room. "It has come to my attention that neither of y'all are involved with anything at school. Boys, what the hell is wrong with you?! Middle school social life prepares you for experiences in high school. With you 2 doing nothing, I'm worried I'm going to get loser grandchildren in high school! Even though you both are already close enough to being losers in my book. So, get involved at school! Join a club, start a club, join a sport, join a music or theatre group! Make new friends. I don't care! Just do something with yo damn lives, damn it!" Granddad took a breath of air into his lungs. "Thanks to this town being white as snow, we live in an amazing school district! That means y'all got no excuses to not have amazing lives!"

"Ummm Granddad" objected Huey.

"What?!"

"I'm in a club already."

"Oh? Which one? Chess club? Art club? Spanish Club? French Club?"

"I am the president and founder of the first ever 'African-American Interest Club'" Huey said with some pride and dignity.

"Haha nigga you gay!" Riley shouted.

"What the fuck kind of club is that?" demanded Robert.

"We discuss issues and interests that are on the minds of African-Americans across America. We also discuss how those interests could be met and how those issues could be solved. We're short on members and we have funding issues unfortunately."

"Hahaha! 'Short on members'? Nigga, you and Jazmine are the club's _only_ members! That's so lame man!"

"Hey boy, you want to know what's really lame?" asked Robert.

"What Granddad?"

"The fact that you are not involved with anything at school! Man, if you keep this up, you'll be a pot-smoking loser by the time you're in high school!"

Riley thought for a moment. Then, he remembered Cindy's suggestion. "Nah Granddad. Imma get involved at school this year. I'm gonna join wrestling! Yeah! It just hasn't started yet! Give a nigga some time."

Huey turned in Riley's direction and raised his eyebrow. " _You._ You're joining wrestling?" Huey asked with some astonishment in his voice. "You're probably the most unlikely person that I know of who would join such a sport."

"Man, how hard could it be? Cindy's a wrestler. She told me to try it so I am. Face it, if a bitch can do it, so can a real nigga like me."

"Well, wrestling! Good for you boy! I should have wrestled back when I was a kid. I was just scared. Wrestlers are some tough ass motherfuckers" remarked Robert.

"Really?" Riley asked. He liked the idea of being called a 'tough-ass motherfucker'. Almost sounded like 'real nigga'.

Robert turned to Huey. "Looks like you might have to join something else boy. This Colored Folks club might not cut it if ya ask me." Huey scowled at his grandfather. Soon, Robert left the living room and went upstairs, leaving Riley alone with Huey. Huey noticed Riley still reminiscing about the concept of being a 'tough-ass motherfucker' thanks to wrestling.

"Riley" Huey said. Riley snapped out of his daydream.

"What, bitch?" he asked.

Ignoring Riley's remark, Huey went on to say: "Wrestling is a tough sport. Actually is the toughest sport out there arguably."

"What! I though basketball was the toughest sport! LeBron James and all them niggas are as tough as they get!"

"Just wait till your first wrestling practice. Then, you'll actually know what the true definition of 'tough' is."

"Whatever nigga" Riley muttered before going upstairs and purposely skipping work on his history project.

The next day, Riley went to Woodcrest Central's activities office and signed up for wrestling. It was already the end of October and wrestling season was going to start in about two weeks. Huey advised Riley to start preparing himself and typical of Riley, he didn't listen. Huey told Riley to get some running in throughout the week in order to improve his cardiovascular endurance. "Wrestling has a lot of cardio. A lot of strength. A lot of everything" Huey had informed his brother. Eventually, Riley decided to lift three times a week after school. He mainly focused on bench press and bicep curls. He still wore his signature wife beater and liked to think his biceps were really starting to take shape. He would have kept playing basketball at the park but due to his lifting, he did not have as much time for it. He also noticed that Cindy wasn't really at the park anymore.

Around the beginning of November, he got a text message from her saying that she was already beginning to train for wrestling season. Riley replied, calling her a pussy and that he was going to wrestle. She replied "good" and that was the least he heard from Cindy for a while.


	2. Chapter 2

With wrestling season nearly a week away, the school posted an announcement for a pre-season wrestling meeting prior to their open mats sessions that had already been going on for about 3 weeks. Huey told Riley to go to it and to also go to the open mats wrestling held afterwards. "It will be good experience to start wrestling some of the kids" Huey suggested. Riley, not really knowing what to expect, went to the meeting.

When he arrived at the wrestling gym, a massively intimidating gymnasium, he was surprised by the turnout. There were about 45 boys from throughout sixth, seventh, and eighth grade there. "Huh. Damn" Riley said while taking a seat with the other boys. Through the fairly large crowd, Riley saw Butch Magnus, the bully from elementary school. The guy was still the largest kid in the grade, height and weight-wise. Butch noticed Riley and flipped him off and Riley did the same. The head wrestling coach, some middle-aged, white teacher Riley had never met before, stood in front of them all.

"Hey there guys. Glad you all could make it. My name is Mr. Moore and I am a seventh grade math teacher and the head wrestling coach here at Woodcrest Central. It's nice to see some returning faces and some new faces. I'm looking forward to this year's upcoming season." Riley started to yawn while Coach Moore droned on about the team and the meet schedule. He did look up however when Moore mentioned the fact that he aims for Woodcrest Central to be ranked in state again. "As you all could probably guess, I want nothing more than for our team to be ranked again. Last year, we had 3 state qualifiers but none of them placed. This year, I want even more state qualifiers and state placers."

"Yeah!" some of the older boys chanted in agreement.

"All right, that concludes the meeting. We're going to have optional pre-season practices beginning today and going until wrestling season starts. We even have an optional practice planned for the Saturday before our first day on Monday. Hope to see you all there. Open mats will start shortly." Riley stood around, waiting for the crowd to disperse. About half the boys left while the other half stayed for wrestling. Deciding that he wasn't a pussy, he decided to stay for wrestling too. All the other wrestlers brought wrestling shoes and headgear while Riley had brought nothing besides a pair of shorts and his wife beater. Still unsure, he began walking out onto the mat that was set up but he was approached by Coach Moore. "Hey there, are you new?" the coach asked.

"Yeah" Riley replied. He noticed that Coach Moore was really jacked. "I'm Riley Freeman."

"Ahhh. One of the new sixth graders."

"Yeah man."

"Well Riley, how much experience have you had with wrestling?"

"None."

"Well, I'll have you drill with one of our more experienced kids. This is Cody. He's been wrestling for a couple years already, but he'll show you the basics." Coach Moore brought Riley over to a fairly muscular-looking white seventh grade boy with light brown hair. "Cody, this is Riley. He's new and I was wondering if you'd want to train with him. Introduce him to wrestling."

"Yeah sure Coach. Hey Riley, I'm Cody."

"S'up man" said Riley.

"I think we're in Spanish class together."

"Yeah yeah you right. That class sucks cock man. It's gay."

"Hahaha yeah… So anyways, do you know anything about wrestling?"

"Nah man. I just know it's supposed to be hard."

"You got that right. Okay, let's start off with a simple double leg takedown. It's a signature wrestling move." Cody got in his stance, motioned for Riley to do the same, stalked forward, and shot on Riley's right side. Cody came up with both Riley's legs, turned the corner, and brought Riley to the mat, who landed on his back with a thud.

"Awww nigga! That hurt!"

"It's wrestling. That's what makes it tough."

"Man that felt kinda gay. You grabbing me at my legs and shit."

"It may seem awkward at first, but believe me, wrestling isn't gay. You'll get used to it. You try it now." Riley and Cody got back in their stances, Riley moved forward, stepped, shot, and went for Cody's legs. Grimacing, Riley came up with the legs and muscled Cody to the mat. "Not bad Riley" said Cody. "You got the shot down. Now you just have to explode with it as you come up and really drive me to the side."

"Okay" Riley muttered, feeling a little frustrated. Riley retried the takedown, this time attempting to cut the corner more sharply. He had his head over his shoulder and looked up at the ceiling as he drove Cody down to the mat.

"Great! That was a lot better dude. Get some more in and I'll show you some more stuff." 5 minutes later, after Riley had got in 8 more double legs, Cody moved onto some on the mat stuff.

"This is a basic pinning combination called a half Nelson." Cody had Riley flat on his stomach. Cody demonstrated by picking Riley's right wrist, driving him over the wrist, scooping his head on the left side, and driving him onto his back.

"Damn nigga, your armpit was in my face, yo."

"Again, you'll just get used to it. Think about that and it will motivate you to fight the half." Riley then tried a half Nelson on Cody and didn't feel too bad with it. He tried it 6 more times, 3 on each side of Cody's body. Eventually, Cody showed Riley how to escape a wrestler's control after he gets taken down through a stand-up. He had Riley in Referee's Position with him covering. He coached Riley to get hand control, step up with his inside leg, get to his feet, and break the grip. Riley tried this a total of 10 times before he felt he could do it fast enough. "You're doing good Riley" Cody encouraged as Riley stood, panting and taking a breather. He was experiencing immensely heavy perspiration. He had never felt this tired or sweaty during basketball, if not ever at all in his life. "How about I teach you a throw?"

"O-Okay" Riley said between breaths.

Back on their feet again, Cody got Riley's wrists in grasp, before grabbing Riley in a headlock with one arm and Riley's arm in the other hand. He stepped into Riley and leaned, shifting his weight so that Riley lost his balance and his momentum brought him to the mat where he landed flat on his back with Cody scooping his head. "Standard throw" Cody explained. "Now you try." Riley got back up and muscled his way into inside control of Cody. He repeated Cody's steps and threw Cody over his shoulder and followed him down to the mat.

"Good" critiqued Cody. Cody practiced the throw two more times before Coach Moore had all the wrestlers bring it in.

"Okay boys, there's only 5 minutes left. I could have you guys keep drilling but I want some conditioning. Everybody's got 3 sprints, there and back across the mat. Line up. When I say go, run." Several new boys groaned while Riley and Cody followed the crowd.

"Man, I'm new. I can't do this shit" Riley whispered to Cody.

"Just do it Riley. You'll benefit from it in the long run. Besides, I thought "Young Reezy" doesn't take shit from anybody. Even if they tell him to run." Riley thought for a moment.

"Man, you right!"

"Go!" Riley took off sprinting along with all the other boys. He made it to the other end of the mat, touched the edge and sprinted back to where he started. He then repeated this two more times, growing more and more exhausted each time. On the third sprint's last stretch, Riley breathed hard and sprinted as fast as he could. He sprinted so hard and fast that one of his socks ripped. Practically sweating waterfalls, Riley made his way to the drinking fountain with the other boys to quench his thirst. After that, Riley got on his shoes, said good bye to Cody and walked home.

The next day at school, Riley sat with his friends at lunch and told them about trying wrestling. Most of his friends were ghetto-looking Hispanic kids because since there were practically no other black kids in their school, Riley hung out with who he considered the next best thing. "So it was cool?" a kid named Carlos Hernandez asked Riley.

"Yeah… It was all right."

"Do you still think it's gay?" another boy named Josh Gomez asked.

"Uhhhh, yes and no. It's not as gay as you think actually. I guess I called it gay 'cause I didn't know shit about it before trying it, you feel me?"

"Ye I do."

"Did you see one really big Mexican kid at open mats yesterday?" asked another boy named Juan Munoz. "He an eighth grader."

"Uh yeah yeah I did dawg" answered Riley. "Really big dude."

"Ye. He on varsity. Name's Arthur Quintana. Dat nigga weighs 280 man."

"Damn nigga. Maybe some of you beaners should try wrestling. It's a great workout. Make y'all lose some of that McDonald's weight y'all got in yo asses."

"Hey don't call us fat, bitch nigga!" protested Carlos.

"Nigga you fat" replied Riley. Carlos shook his chubby arms in frustration.

"We may not be like the in-shape Mexican kids on the soccer team dude, but we ain't fat."

"All you Mexican niggas is fat."

"That's it Riley! I'm gonna cut you bitch!" Carlos shouted as he got up and charged at Riley. Riley braced himself and remembered what he learned in wrestling. He reached his arms out, grasped Carlos by his arms, got him in a headlock, and threw him to the ground.

"Holy fucking shit!" Carlos cried as he hit the floor, hard.

"Who's the bitch now, bitch?" Riley taunted.

After school, Riley met up with Cody for open mats. "So you came back man" said Cody.

"Yeah dawg. I think… I think I'm gonna stay in this and see how it plays out."

"Awesome bro!"

On the inside, Riley felt somewhat overtaken by Cody's optimism. A big and intimidating boy, Cody did not strike Riley as being friendly when he first laid eyes on the white boy. Initially, the boy reminded Riley of a young thug; something he strived to be. Riley had his fair share of friends at this school as well as Cindy over at Woodcrest South. Cody's outgoing but tough demeanor reminded Riley somewhat of Cindy.

Riley and Cody drilled together for an hour. During this session, Riley learned to sprawl: a defensive move in which one sprawls their legs back if their opponent is in on or is shooting for their legs. From a sprawl position, Riley learned a basic front headlock, which, he grasped with more ease than double legs initially. before open mats ended and Riley went home and showered. Now that he believed he was for sure going to do wrestling, he decided to look into getting wrestling shoes. After his shower, he went online to browse for wrestling shoes.

Later that same evening, Riley had to almost drag Robert to the Foot Locker in town so that he could buy wrestling shoes. Riley had gone online and he soon had his mind set on a few potential pairs of shoes to get. If he got lucky, these could be the best shoes he's ever gotten. He wanted either a pair of red Nike Inflict wrestling shoes or the signature gold Jordan Burroughs Elite shoes from Asics. He was a bit worried though. The Burroughs shoes cost about $85 and the Inflicts cost around $80. He wasn't sure if Granddad was willing to spend that much money on Riley's first wrestling shoes. Inside the store, Riley brought Robert over to the wrestling shoes section. Robert began to eye all the nice, expensive shoes they passed. "Damn! Nike Air Force Ones! I could use a pair of those!" he said with excitement when he stared at the all-white, $110 Nike shoe.

"Hell no Granddad! We came to get shoes for _me_!" Riley protested.

"Boy shut up! You're lucky you're even getting shoes. Shit, if shoes weren't required for wrestling, I'd make you wrestle in your socks or barefoot."

"Whatever old man. Here are some shoes I want" Riley said as he held up a box of the gold-colored Jordan Burroughs shoes from Asics.

"What?! $84.99?! That's some ol' bullshit!"

"Don't buy that shoe. It's named after a monkey" said an all-too familiar voice. Robert and Riley turned to see Uncle Ruckus staring at them.

"Ruckus?" asked Robert.

"Yes Robert, this is one of my many jobs. Oh how I love the nice white folks who walk in and shop for new shoes. However, I detest with a passion the negroes who walk into this establishment, thinking they could buy expensive shoes meant for white man feet with the food stamps and government money that they don't deserve to have and use at their leisure."

"So you think these shoes cost too much too?" Robert asked, changing the subject from Ruckus's racism.

"Hell no! Those shoes are shit because they are named after a nigga named Jordan Burroughs. That Jordan Burroughs… He nothing but a monkey with a fancy double leg takedown. So your grandson thinks he's gonna be a wrestler?"

"Yeah" replied Riley.

"Well good for you. Wrestling is a fine sport. Invented by the white man, as were all sports. Wrestling was first introduced as an event for the first Olympic Games by those white Greek men. Oh such a fine sport. Nowadays unfortunately, there are niggas, Mexicans, Asians, and other nigga races that have integrated into such a fine white man's sport."

"How about these Granddad?" Riley asked, holding up a box of red Nike Inflicts.

"80?! Fuck no!" bellowed Robert. "I could buy 3 pairs of pants for $80."

"Here Robert, since you are clearly a poor-ass monkey, let me show you some shoes that are probably more at your affordability level" offered Ruckus. Ruckus led them to another shelf of wrestling shoes. These shoes were way cheaper and looked blander. "These are Asics Matflex's" Ruckus said, holding up a crappy-looking pair of Asics shoes.

"Ohhhh. Only $25.99" observed Robert.

"Nope" muttered Riley, looking disgusted with the shoe.

"Combats; by Adidas. Nice German company by the way" offered Ruckus as he held up a fairly boring-looking black shoe with the signature Adidas pattern in red on the side.

"Eh" said Riley.

"Oh c'mon boy! They're only $28.99!" complained Robert.

"If your niglet here wants a pricier shoe, I can make some suggestions. We have the Asics Dave Schultz shoe and we have the Asics Cael Sanderson shoes. Your choice of color. We also have the Jake Varner shoe by Adidas."

"Hell no Ruckus" responded Robert.

"Fine." Ruckus produced a Nike shoe that was black with the bottom having a signature white curved line. "Here are the Nike Speedswipes. Since y'all are monkeys, perhaps you'll like these 'cause they're Nike."

"Hmmmmm" thought Riley. They were probably the best cheap-looking shoe he's seen so far.

A white man in his thirties rushed over to Ruckus. "Ummm hi, do you work here?" he asked Ruckus.

"Oh I sure do Mr. White Man Sir! How can I assist you?"

"My daughter needs some new running shoes and we were wondering if you could show us some recommendations."

"Oh shoes for a little white girl! Mister, I'd be happy to help in any way physically possible! See ya darkies" Ruckus said as he left with the white man to help the latter's daughter.

"Ruckus, come back here!" ordered Robert but Ruckus simply ignored him, leaving him and Riley alone in the wrestling shoes section. Sighing, Robert turned to Riley. "What's your shoe size boy?"

"8" replied Riley. Robert found a box of size 8 Nike Speedswipes and tucked them under his arm. Next, he began to make his way towards the cashier's area.

"Aye Granddad! You never asked me if I wanted those!" protested Riley.

"Too bad boy! You take too long with deciding and I want to go home! It's getting late."

"Man, this is some ol' bullshit!" Riley grudgingly followed his Granddad towards the cash register. Robert made a quick stop, grabbing a box of the white Nike Air Force One's that were his size. "Man, you get some expensive shoe and I don't! This is some gay ol' bullshit!" Riley protested as he and Robert made their way to the cashier, paid for the two pairs of shoes, and drove home.


	3. Chapter 3

On Friday, Riley waited outside the doorway of the wrestling gym after school. He was waiting for Juan and Josh to show up for them to try out wrestling. Already on day 8 of supposedly being a wrestler, Riley felt like he had been wrestling already for a month. Luckily for him, his gym class was in a weight training unit so now he got to lift every day for the next month. He could already see himself now: a real nigga with enough muscle for him to slap the shit out of every hoe around him.

Finally, Juan and Josh showed up and they each greeted Riley with a questionable gang-like handshake. "Aight, wrestling may feel hard at first. Just don't go out like no bitches" Riley ordered the two Mexicans.

"Ye. Aight" they both replied. Riley opened the door and he and his friends walked into the gym. There were already several boys on the mat but what caught Riley's attention was the mulatto girl talking to Coach Moore. "So, 2 points per takedown, 2 points for a reversal, 1 point for escape, and 2 or 3 for near-fall?" she asked.

"That's right, nice work. Glad to have you Jazmine" Coach Moore said to her. She finished her conversation and turned in Riley's direction.

"Jazmine?! What's yo bitch ass doing here?!" demanded Riley.

"Oh hi Riley! I didn't know you were a wrestler! That's so cool!" Jazmine DuBois chirped in her typical way. Riley stared at her, still wondering why she was here. With her big girlish smile, twinkling eyes, and stupid-looking Ugg boots she was wearing, she looked clearly out of place in a wrestling room.

"Shouldn't you be like, hanging with my gay-ass brother o' some shit like that?"

"Not now. I came here because I'm joining the wrestling team."

"Da fuck?! You ain't no wrestler!"

"No, not as a wrestler. I want to be a stat girl and team manager."

"What?! Since when does the team get bitches?"

"I'm not a bitch Riley! I'm going to be a _manager_. I want to help manage a team and make some more friends. Daddy wanted me to get more involved at school. He said being a part of Huey's African-American Interest Club wasn't enough."

"Well no shit, my brother's a faggot. And that club you two got's gay as hell. So what you gonna do for us?"

"I'm gonna score your guys' dual meets and help out. I even get to travel on the bus with you guys! This'll be fun!"

"Man, that sounds gay" retorted Riley. "Coach even gonna pay fo' your shit?"

"No, this is all volunteer work. Volunteer work is caring work!"

"Pfff fuck dat shit. No paper means its retarded."

Riley and his friends left Jazmine before she even got to say goodbye and made their way to the mat. Feeling dejected, Jazmine grabbed her backpack and headed home.

On the mat, Riley quickly slipped on and laced up his new wrestling shoes.

"Oh shit, we needed shoes?" asked Juan as he watched Riley lace up.

"Nah nigga, you can get 'em later" replied Riley.

"S'up Riley!" Cody shouted as he walked over to Riley.

"Aye Cody. What's good?"

"Nothing really. Who are your friends?"

"Juan and Josh here wanted to try wrestling too."

"Hey guys good to have you. Riley, how about you and I teach them some of the basics I've been showing you?"

"Okay."

Juan and Josh followed Cody and Riley onto the mat where they were given wrestling stance instruction, which led into basic double leg takedown shots. After getting through sprawls, escaping from bottom, and a basic half Nelson, Juan and Josh were very tired. "Aye, I said don't go out like no bitches" Riley said to the 2 very exhausted Mexican boys.

"Man, fuck this shit bro" replied Josh.

"Pussy" Riley growled at his friend.

"You guys haven't even wrestled live yet" added Cody. "Riley, you should get some live in too. Every 3 matches you win in the pre-season or the off-season equals a match won during the real season."

"Yeah, aight. I'm gonna wrestle Josh here." Josh's eyes widened.

"No, no, no Riley! Don't do this to me nigga!" Josh begged.

"Too late bitch."

"Riley, you should wrestle me first. I weigh only a little more than you" offered Cody.

"Aight fine" replied Riley with a slight groan of irritancy. On the inside, Riley actually felt a little nervous. From drilling with Cody several times, he knew the guy was tough and well experienced, even for a seventh grader. There seemed to be something more to his skills. Riley got to a circle, got his foot on the line, and shook Cody's hand. They got going immediately.

Cody got down real low in his stance, made a quick lunging motion that made Riley jump. Cody immediately retreated. Riley realized that Cody was toying with him. Cody got down on 1 knee and did a knee slide scoot and circled Riley. Riley crept slowly, unsure of what to do. Cody circled and circled until he stepped 1 way and then stepped the other way, taking a slide step and shooting right into Riley's right side. Riley couldn't react fast enough as Cody came up with a single leg. He got to his feet and had Riley standing precariously on one leg with his other still in the air. As he bounced around to maintain his balance, Riley could only watch helplessly as he watched Cody seemingly collapse Riley's leg, folding it, and letting gravity take Riley to the mat as he fell. Riley landed like a cadaver and didn't react quick enough as Cody covered his hips on top. "Two, Cody. Fag, zero" taunted Butch Magnus, who suddenly walked over to watch the match. Riley grimaced and managed to build a base and get on all fours only to get broken down by Cody. Cody crossfaced Riley: punching him across his face, taking his whole body with as he curled Riley up. Cody got Riley into what appeared to be human ball and sat back. Riley was on his back and knew he was in trouble. Feeling like his strength was failing him, Riley flailed helplessly. Before Butch could call it a pin, Cody let Riley roll back to his stomach and let off his pressure. He got up off of Riley and pushed Riley away, cutting him loose. "3 nearfall for Cody. Fag now has 1" Butch announced.

Riley tried to circle and catch his breath at the same time. Unlike Riley, Cody maintained proper stance position and looked like he could keep going beyond the 6 minute duration of a wrestling match. Realizing that he needed to get some offense going, Riley circled to get head position on Cody. He watched his opponent's feet and determined that he would attack the right side. Riley pummeled in to get head position and inside control. He started to move into a side step set up when all of a sudden, Cody clubbed Riley's head with 1 hand while he lowered his level and picked Riley's lead ankle into an ankle pick and drove forward. Riley fell to the mat back-first and immediately knew he was in trouble. He began to squirm and flail like a dying fish and tried to fight Cody's pressure but to no avail as Cody got the pin with a quick half Nelson.

Butch slapped the mat to call the pin. Butch snickered at Riley but the other boys watching applauded both Riley and Cody's efforts. Cody held out his hand to Riley. Riley took it and shook it.

"Good match" said Cody.

"Yeah, you tough as nails nigga" Riley replied.

"Thanks. When you're ready, go wrestle Josh. Remember everything I've shown you and what happened just now. You got this."

"Aight. Josh! Get yo bitch ass back here, nigga!" Josh cautiously walked back onto the mat towards Riley.

Deep down, Riley really felt that he let go of all his homophobic and deceptive doubts about wrestling. He now understood why Huey said it was the toughest sport: you have to put up with the adversity in order to work hard, succeed, and become something better in the long run.

Riley got back in his stance and tensed. Josh got in an incorrect squat of a stance. Signaled to start, Riley moved in his stance across the mat, forward, backward, and side to side. Josh moved slowly and cautiously, unsure of what to do. Riley circled into Josh and closed the gapping space between their bodies and began to pummel and hand fight him. Just like the previous match, Riley found his head position and did his stepping set up. As Josh carelessly moved, Riley found his opening and shot into a double leg takedown very fluidly. He came up with the shot and drove Josh all the way to his back before the other newbie wrestler could even react. On the mat, Riley went for his half. He wrapped his arm around Josh's neck and walked towards the head and settled as Josh rolled helplessly onto his back. Officially past his opinion of wrestling being gay, Riley felt a surge of power as he finally got the pin, got up and celebrated his first 'win'.

"Damn nigga, I feel invincible" he said to Cody after open mats was over. This was the next to last open mats session before their season began.

After his Mexican friends all left early on their bikes, Riley was still in the gym as Coach Moore locked up the gym. Cody was still there as well, waiting for his mom. Riley was packing up his backpack and texting Huey on his cheap Convoy 3 flip phone while Cody spoke with Coach Moore. Huey had been asking about open mats and Riley informed him that he won a match. On a rare occasion, Huey replied back, congratulating Riley. Ending his conversation with Huey, Riley overheard Cody speaking to Coach Moore.

"I can tell you're really excited" said Moore.

"Yes Sir. I want to win it this year. No holding back. I think I can do it."

"Absolutely. I definitely think you're capable of it. After all, you're unique in that you were our first fifth grader that we had on the team." Riley's eyes widened.

"The fuck…" he whispered.

"Yeah. I will have a repeat of state. But, I'm going to walk away with a bracket board and a gold medal."

"I like your spirit. I believe in you Cody. See you on Monday."

"See ya Coach" Cody replied as he and Coach Moore parted ways. "You're still here Riley?" Cody asked as he came across Riley.

"Yeah man, my friends left without me, my brother can't drive and he's gay, and my Granddad don't want to pick me up. He's uhhhh busy with a maid…" Riley replied, choosing his words carefully to avoid the fact that Robert had gone on a date with yet another woman much younger than he was.

"I could give you a ride home if you want" Cody offered.

"For real? Thanks man."

"No problem bro. My mom will be here in no time."

Soon enough, the two boys saw a green minivan pull up and Riley followed Cody towards it. "Mom, this is Riley. He's a new wrestler this year. I was wondering if we could give him a lift home because his grandfather isn't around right now."

"I'd be happy too! Hello Riley, I'm Mrs. Warner."

"Hey, what's good with you?"

"I'm doing well, thank you. Do you like wrestling so far?"

"Yeah it's good. I used to play basketball but my friend told me to try a different sport and that's how I got here, you know what I'm sayin'?"

"Ahhh yes. I'm sure Coach is glad to have you. Cody said the team is very big this year and Coach Moore is looking forward to an impending great season."

"Yeah. Cody, how long you been wrestling again?"

"This will be my fifth year" replied Cody.

"Damn, how you got so much experience?" Riley asked, hoping to get an explanation for what he heard earlier.

"Well, I started wrestling when I was in second grade. I started out in the local Woodcrest Youth Wrestling club. When I got to fifth grade, I had capped off a 30-3 record in fourth grade. I took third at the Maryland Youth Wrestling Club state tournament. My success attracted the attention of Coach Moore. He offered me a spot on Woodcrest Central's varsity lineup because he said that fifth graders could compete at the middle school level. I weighed 70 pounds at the time and he needed a varsity 70 pounder, so I accepted his offer. I managed to finish off with a 20-8 record at the middle school level, which was decent for a fifth grader. I even beat a couple seventh graders. Once I got to sixth grade, I had been lifting so I gained some muscle and wrestled 95 pounds. I won conference, took second at regionals, and placed third at sectionals, granting me a trip downstate. I lost my preliminary match but I made it through the wrestlebacks and all the way to fifth place. I won that match and took fifth. I finished off 28-5."

"Damn man, you for real. That's amazing" commended Riley.

"Thanks Riley. I have a goal to win state. That's all I want."

"You really think you can do it?"

"Yeah I believe in myself. As you you're willing to work hard and you believe in yourself, you can do anything you set your mind to."

"'Once you've wrestled, everything else in life is easy'" said Mrs. Warner. "That's a quote from Dan Gable, a fantastic wrestler."

"Everything…" Riley wondered aloud. The car stopped in front of the Freeman residence.

"Aight, thanks for the ride."

"Don't mention it Riley" replied Mrs. Warner.

"See you on Monday, Riley" said Cody.

"Yeah later man." Riley exited the van and the van drove away. Riley opened the door and was greeted by Robert.

"Boy! How was wrestling? Glad to see you're finally doing something with your life." Riley brushed past his Granddad and the latter's endless bitching. As he settled in, Huey nodded to him. Riley set his backpack down and headed upstairs to shower and looked forward to a free weekend before wrestling season began.

That night, before he went to bed, he texted Cindy to see what she was up to. She told him that she was hanging with old friends from girl scouts. Riley told her that he was most likely going to wrestle for at least this coming winter. Cindy merely replied with a seemingly sarcastic "Sick bro" reply. He also sent her a picture of his Nike speed swipe wrestling shoes. Cindy replied back, calling Riley a "scrub". Riley, frowning at Cindy's more hostile than usual behavior, ended their conversation and turned in for the night.


	4. Chapter 4

On Monday afternoon, Huey Freeman sighed. Sitting in history class, this was his last class of the day. A typical Monday for him, this was going to be Riley's first actual day of wrestling. Normally, he enjoyed the class for the most part. He often read more than he had to for readings and typically critiqued his textbook for any inaccuracies or other problems he could find regarding African-American history. Today, there was a substitute teacher and Huey really wished the real teacher was actually here today; especially considering who the sub was. "Good afternoon children and nigga. My name is Mr. Uncle Ruckus, volunteer substitute teacher. Now, I understand that your nice white woman of a teacher, Miss Carmichael gave me a lesson plan. However, I have decided that for today's class, we will discuss a more pressing issue: the historical insignificance of the African nigga monkey" Ruckus said while smiling at the class yet glaring at Huey. Huey tensed in his seat and glared back at Ruckus. "So for starters, black people just aren't people. They are brainless monkeys straight from the sweaty jungles of Africa who were exposed to civilization by the prideful white man. Generous as he was, the white man gave these negroes food, shelter, and jobs."

"That was called slavery" a white boy called out.

"Yes, yes it was called slavery, young man" Ruckus replied. "This was back when the world made sense and I'm sure y'all could already see how much more efficient life was back then."

To the right of Huey, Jazmine DuBois glanced at her best friend. As Ruckus briefly turned his back to the class to prepare for another racial rant, Jazmine quickly scribbled on a piece of scratch paper and passed a note over to Huey. Huey paused in his death stare at Ruckus and glanced down at the note. 'Are you going to say anything?' the note read. Instead of writing back, Huey turned to Jazmine and nodded. He knew he had to stop Ruckus but, he needed the right opportunity to do so.

Ruckus spoke again. "Black negroes are just cursed. Once slavery was unfortunately abolished, them monkeys had nowhere to go. Where could they go anyways? There weren't any jungles in America. Starting in the early to mid-1900's, niggas started flocking like birds into the inner city ghettos. Within these ghettos, niggas congregated and lived in filth, welfare, unemployment, and poverty. Meanwhile, proud white folks soon emigrated to the cleaner, safer suburbs such as this one."

"You left out the fact that white people technically created those inner city ghettos. White politicians purposely created subsidized housing units within the cities in order to keep black people out of the suburbs" Huey called out.

"How do you interrupt my lecture with false information about my lesson, negro!" Ruckus scowled at Huey.

"Funny, you didn't say that when that white kid spoke up" Huey remarked.

"Well he's white, and you're a nigga. Simple as that" responded Ruckus.

"As president and founder of Woodcrest Central's African-American Interest Group, I am going to ask you stop saying horrible lies about my people and culture. Now, why don't you move onto something more relevant such as the passing of the Fair Housing Act of 1968?"

"That's it nigga! You have interrupted my lesson for the first and last time! I order you to haul your black ass to the principal's office now!" Huey tensed and stood up.

"No, Ruckus. If anything, my club assistant and I will report _you"_ he said and pointed at Jazmine, cuing her to stand up. Jazmine's eyes widened and she slowly stood up.

"Huey, I'm scared. I changed my mind. I don't want to stand up for black interests" Jazmine whined.

"Oh c'mon Jazmine! It's in our best interest to get this bastard the punishment he deserves."

"Oh Huey, you dragged this poor, innocent, mulatto girl into this? Are you trying to overwhelm the fine, white portion of her brain with your negro terrorist lies?"

"I'm teaching her to stand up for her African side and interests associated with it. Your bigotry is the only thing in this room that is a terror. You're poisoning these young people's minds with your corrupt, racist history."

"Y-Yeah" Jazmine stammered in agreement as Ruckus glared at them both. Ruckus sighed.

"Lord, it's worse than I thought. Jazmine, you're half-white. As a mulatto, the white part of your brain should be listening and agreeing with my lesson, not with the ideals of this African hooligan."

"I-I don't know what to do" Jazmine said, looking frantically from Huey to Ruckus and tears began to form in her eyes.

"Well, I'll send both of you to the office then!" Ruckus bellowed at them. Sighing, Huey left his desk and coaxed Jazmine to follow him out of the classroom and head to the principal's office.

"Do you think they're going to punish us Huey?" Jazmine frightfully asked. "I don't want to get expelled!"

"Eh, even if they do, it would serve as a prime example of how white people still oppress black people to a certain extent. We can then write up a thesis and argument with as our significance and get the justice we really deserve."

"Ahhhh! I just want stay in school and get good grades!" Jazmine whined as they entered the principal's office.

"You must be the two eighth grade trouble-makers" said the secretary as Huey and Jazmine sat down in the waiting room.

"Who wants to know?" Huey snapped at her.

"Well, the principal wanted to know. He'll meet with you shortly. Your substitute called you guys down and he'll be in attendance as well. Jazmine froze while Huey glowered in his seat.

"Oh no" he muttered.

A short time later, the bell rang, signaling the end of the day. Uncle Ruckus arrived in the principal's office and sat down very far away from Huey.

"The principal will see you now" announced the secretary. Ruckus budged Huey and Jazmine and sat down before them inside the principal's small, surprisingly juvenile office. The principal was a meek-looking white man with glasses.

"All right, so, you're accusing these students of interrupting your lesson?" asked the principal.

"Yes, that's right Mr. White Man Principal" replied Ruckus.

"The afro-haired darkie over here was being the real nuisance. Claimed he was the leader of some faction."

"Faction?"

"Yes Sir. An African-American Interest Group. Sounds like a nigga gang or something that will soon be a black terrorist group."

"What?! He's lying!" protested Huey.

"Nigga, I wasn't finished!" Ruckus snapped. Huey responded with a scowl and a raised eyebrow.

"Huh. Well, it seems that this young man's club and his club's intentions are a source of class interruptions."

"Yes, yes! That's what I'm trying to say."

"So, maybe we could come to an agreement here. Huey Freeman and Jazmine DuBois, you're both great students from what I've heard. Your behavior surprises me."

Huey spoke up. "Principal Waxman, you don't understand. It was Uncle Ruckus who started this whole fiasco. He was making racist remarks towards African-Americans and he was attempting to tell the class a completely untrue version of black history. He even claimed that we have no history at all!"

"I said no such thing" countered Ruckus.

"I don't understand. Mr. Ruckus is black as well."

"No, no, no Mr. Waxman. You see, I suffer from re-vitiligo: a skin disease that turns white skin into dark skin. It's the opposite of what Michael Jackson had. I'm a white man with a white soul."

"Uh huh. Okay, I would like to hear Jazmine's point of view of what happened. Once again, Jazmine froze.

"I ummm joined Huey's club because he and I are best friends. Since you're accusing Huey of trying to be an interruption in class, I was unintentionally involved. Huey told me to speak up. This was his idea." Huey face palmed himself.

"See? That mulatto girl speaks the truth" said Ruckus. "That's the white side of her brain talking."

"Okay, so I've made a decision. Ruckus, stop teaching history class. We'll keep hiring you for other classes though. Huey and Jazmine, I am going to have to disband your little club. It appears to be too much of a distraction in school. You two are not expelled though." Jazmine breathed a sigh of relief and Huey scowled.

"What?! As an African-American, I feel that my rights to unionize in a school environment and freedom of speech are being violated."

"Sorry Huey" replied Principal Waxman.

"Oh thank you Mr. Waxman! I knew with your white judgment, we could find a suitable solution" Ruckus said, commending the principal.

Huey and Jazmine exited the room while Ruckus remained to thank Mr. Waxman some more.

"The white justice system typically yields injustice for black people" Huey muttered to Jazmine. They walked over to a set of lockers. Jazmine opened up her locker that was right next to Huey's. She wanted to share a locker with Huey but he declined.

"I'm late for wrestling. I gotta go watch the boys practice" said Jazmine.

"How are you enjoying the stat girl job so far?"

"I like it. I guess I'll be spending a lot more time there now."

"Yeah…" Huey sighed. "I'm walking home. See you later."

"Bye Huey" Jazmine replied as she skipped to the wrestling room.

Inside Woodcrest Central's wrestling room, things were underway. The first day of practice had yielded a strong turnout of 60 kids. That was enough for at least 2 junior varsity squads and a varsity squad. Riley Freeman and his new teammates were in the midst of warmups. Their wrestling room had a total area of 1,200 square feet and this offered a lot of room. All the mats were set up and most of the bleachers had been pushed into the wall. This practice gym is also going to be their competition gym. After what seemed like an endless five minutes of running, several eighth grade leaders along with Cody had everyone circle up and stretch. The group of eighth graders and Cody stood in the middle of the circle and led stretches. Normally, Riley would go on a rant saying that he, "Young Reezy" or "Riley Escobar" could go wherever he wanted but in this situation, he suddenly realized that he had no real authority here. He was a newbie to this sport and the kids around him knew that.

Once stretching was over, the team got ready for their first drill: simple setups to and finishing double-leg takedowns. Hoping to go with Cody, Riley was disappointed to learn that since he was essentially "junior varsity", he had to practice with other junior varsity kids. He reluctantly went with another first-year sixth grader named Jacob Warren. Jacob Warren hadn't come to open mats as often as Riley had so Riley had the advantage skill and experience-wise. As he and Riley drilled, Riley glanced in between go's over at Jazmine DuBois. Apparently as a stat girl, she got to come in and observe their practices as often as she wanted in order to understand wrestling more. Jazmine sat in a small desk on the side near the door. She was trying to read a book but she kept looking up and seemingly admiring all the hard-working boys in the room. Riley scowled at her, gave her a "loser" sign and thought to himself that she was a hoe.

After Riley and Jacob each got one more takedown each, Coach Moore called everyone back in order to move on. The team was given instruction on more proper shooting technique and sprawling when a guy shoots in on them. Later, around 5:00, Coach Moore announced that they could do some live wrestling. Boys such as Cody, Butch Magnus, and even Riley cheered. With Jacob Warren being an even bigger newbie than Riley, Riley knew that he was going to kick some ass today.

They were given situational wrestling: One guy is on his knees , in a double, while the other guy is standing up and beginning to sprawl. Riley chose to be in on the shot first. Dropping to his right and lead knee first, Riley got into position. The whistle blew and Riley drove Jacob down to the mat with all his might. Warren landed with a thud and sighed weakly, disappointed. Riley switched sides and waited for the next whistle. The opposite side was a little more challenging but Riley pulled through and drove Jacob to the mat, pivoting on his trailing leg and using his head and chest like a battering ram. Now, it was Jacob's turn. Jacob feebly got down one knee as Riley got in sprawling position. The whistle blew and Jacob had no answer to Riley as he slammed his hips on top of Jacob. Riley slid back on his knees and got a quick two-hand-block spin and cover takedown on Jacob. Next round, Jacob was on Riley's other side but the latter still scored on easily. Now finished with this set of live wrestling, Coach Moore said that they have one last thing to do: a match. 3 periods, 1 minute each. All around the room, guys got ready and got in their stances. Riley got into his stance, did some badass-looking squat jump that he'd seen Cody do to pump himself up and shook Jacob Warren's hand. The match began and Riley circled aggressively into Jacob. Right away, he found what he wanted: an angle into a double leg. Riley tapped Jacob slightly to get him startled, then shot in and turned the corner like a windshield wiper. He came up to his feet with the shot and brought Jacob Warren right to his back. Jacob Warren didn't seem to know what hit him. With at least 40 seconds left in the first period, Riley decided to let Jacob back up and try to get another takedown. He cut Jacob and immediately shot in on a high crotch shot (something Cody had showed him previously). Again, Riley came up with the shot with ease and brought Jacob down. This time, Jacob was smart enough to land on his stomach instead of his back. Still extended however, Jacob was then overwhelmed by Riley's hip pressure from his riding and Riley quickly got him in a half-Nelson pinning combination. The period ended with a whistle blow. Riley, Jacob, and all the other boys in the room got to catch their breaths for about 20 seconds before the second period began.

In the second period, Riley found himself pitted against a gravely frustrated Jacob Warren. Warren, with a lacking knowledge on good set ups to shots, kept diving in at Riley's slowly deteriorating legs. Luckily, Riley was able to sprawl his feeble legs back and get around Warren to score more takedowns. Eventually, Riley resorted to keeping Warren down and pinned him once more. This time, the pin was rather sloppy and scrubish as Riley in the face of exhaustion, simply muscled Warren to his back without much of a hold such as grabbing a wrist and half. Finally, the second period ended.

In the third period, it was one minute before potential freedom from practice. Riley moved in a staggered stance. For the first time in a while, he felt out of shape. Despite Huey's advice of working hard, Riley's conditioning efforts seemed to have failed. _Stupid nigga_ Riley thought in regards to Huey. Still stuck with a kid in front of him, Riley decided to stop being a pussy and he took a shot. The shot was more of a tiring dive but Riley still moved his head up and he drove Jacob Warren down to the mat.

With his lungs now on fire, Riley went to work. Over the weekend, he had looked up cool wrestling pins on YouTube and he came across one called a tilt. Despite feeling tired as fuck, Riley knew Jacob Warren was probably even more tired. Fighting the urge to quit, Riley chopped Warren's left arm, captured it, rolled to his left while carrying Warren, and he landed with Warren in his arms and on his back. Warren kicked and flailed. Riley held him there for what felt like all of eternity in purgatory. Finally, a whistle sounded and wrestling all across the room ended.

"Time's up! Everybody rest and bring it in!" Coach Moore called out. Riley shoved Jacob Warren aside and made his way back to the middle of the room. He sat in a semi-circle with the other kids.

"I can see that everyone's tired" Moore addressed the team. "Whose tired?"

Every kid raised their hand, Riley included.

"Don't take me working you guys to your limit the wrong way. I care about all of you. I know what you're capable of now but through my training, you all will be capable of even more. There's an old saying, 'Iron sharpens iron'. That's exactly what happens in this wrestling room every day. I know some of you are beginners and I know some of you have experience. Believe me, we all feel like shit sometimes. Feeling like shit but pushing through it is part of becoming a better athlete. In time, you will feel like you are in the best shape of your life. In case any of you haven't noticed, we are short-staffed. Luckily I won't be alone soon enough. I hired 2 new assistant coaches who will coach JV and help me out in any way possible. They'll hopefully be here tomorrow. They…. were running errands today. They might be kind of in and out initially. It's 5:30. That's all I got. I'll see you all tomorrow at 3:25." Everyone got up and left. "Please, do shower right when you get home."

As Riley made his way over to his backpack and sackpack for his gear, Coach Moore approached him.

"Riley."

"What up?"

"It looks the majority of this 'JV' squad is going to be sixth graders."

"So?"

"So, I know you're a beginner but you show promise. I was watching you today. You might want to find a different kid who could be a bit more of a challenge." Riley nodded slightly.

"Uhh okay. Ya want me to become tougher?"

"Yes. But I also like how you seem to lead by example."

"Not really coach. I get straight D's C's if I try."

"Okay. In here, you lead by example with active participation. So I was thinking, back to my point, I think the other boys on JV could use a kid like you to lead them. I know you're still learning the roots and all but—"

"I'll do it!"

"Great!" Riley nodded. As he was about to walk away, he was stopped once more. "And Riley, try to work on those grades."

"Aight." Moore gave Riley a friendly yet stern nod and left Riley alone.

"Riley! You looked cool out there! You remind of Huey!" Jazmine came up from behind Riley.

"Why the hell you still here?!"

"I was watching. It's part of my job."

"Yeah whatever. Don't bother me, aight?"

"Do you need a ride home? My daddy should be here any minute." Riley suddenly remembered that it was November and it was a low of 52 degrees outside and it was somewhat dark. He definitely recalled Granddad telling him to walk his black ass home.

"Uh yeah I'll take it."

"What do you say?"

"Let's go."

"I was hoping you were going to say 'thank you'" Jazmine muttered.

"Nah Young Reezy don't thank nobody."

"Riley, I hope you're tough enough to handle wrestling. Because I'm pretty sure some kid won't listen to your thug talk and pin himself for you."

"I know that! I ain't retarded!" Jazmine rolled her eyes. Soon enough, Tom pulled up in his car.

"Jazmine!"

"Hi daddy!" Jazmine squealed.

"How was your day?" Tom asked somewhat sternly.

"I… I got in trouble…" Riley wanted to hear this for sure.

"I know Jazmine. You and Huey talked back to Uncle Ruckus in class."

"It was Huey's fault! He said we had to in the name of our club!"

"Well, from what Principal Waxman told me, it does sound like it was mainly Huey's fault."

"Yeah…."

"Jazmine, I don't like that club you're in. Huey's a good kid but he does some weird stuff sometimes. That's why I'm glad you joined the wrestling staff." Tom leaned out of his car and he noticed Riley standing behind Jazmine in the shadows.

"Riley? Is that you?"

"Yeah I'm hitching a ride Tom."

"Oh okay. What are you doing here?"

"Wrestling, nigga."

"You joined wrestling?! Wow! I thought I'd never see the day! I always thought you would stay with basketball."

"I'm giving wrestling a go."

"That's wonderful! As a kid, I never wrestled, but, I had plenty of friends who were wrestlers. In fact, I did their homework for them sometimes in exchange for them protecting me from bullies." Riley snickered. "Doing extra homework was great for me" continued Tom. "Eventually, I was on the Honor Roll. National Honor Society. What a treat! I was really respected too. That high up in the school hierarchy, I was far away from being a school hooligan. Since I wasn't some juvenile delinquent, I was very unlikely to go to jail and get anally raped!" Tom finished with a nervous laugh.

Following Tom's testimony, Riley wanted this car ride to be over quickly. Thankfully, they had just tuned onto Timid Deer Lane.

"Did you see any nice boys on wrestling, Jazmine?" teased Tom.

"What?! No!" Jazmine protested. "You ask the worst questions!"

"I'm just kidding, Pumpkin. I'm not your mother. Don't tell her I said that."

Soon enough, Tom braked in the middle of the street where the Freeman house was right across from his house. "Okay, Riley, good luck with wrestling!" Tom said with a grin.

"Bye Riley!" shouted Jazmine.

"Yeah whatever" Riley slammed the door to Tom's car and headed towards his house.

Riley entered his house. For once, he wasn't greeted by Robert. Instead, Huey was his greeting party.

"How'd it go? Huey asked. Huey appeared to be in a sorrow mood, as usual. Riley could make a pretty good guess to why that is.

"Pretty good. I think I'm getting better, fo' real."

"That's nice. Think you'll stick with it?" Riley decided to choose his words carefully.

"Man, I ain't sure. That coach says I'm good but I'm still learning. He wants me to be a JV leader. I'm tired as fuck. A lot of shit in one day nigga."

"That's pretty good. If it were me in that coach's shoes, I would never ask you to lead anybody."

"Yeah whatever" Riley replied as he headed upstairs to shower.

On Tuesday, it was the second day of wrestling season for Riley. At the start of practice, Coach Moore informed everyone that the 2 new coaches answered his phone call for once and would arrive shortly. In the meantime, the boys warmed up and stretched. During that time, Coach Moore explain the history of Woodcrest Central wrestling.

Woodcrest Central first opened its doors in 1989 so it was fairly new, even in 2014. Wrestling had been one of the original sports that Central offered. That first season, Central had its first state champion in 1990. That kid then won state in 1991 as an 8th grader as well. Following a 10 year gap, Central had a state champion and a state-runner up back in 2001. Seemingly on the downside for several years, Coach Moore became the head coach in 2009. By then, the program seemed somewhat dead. With the team's effort over those years since 2009, Central had 3 state qualifiers including Cody Warner but none of them placed. This was last season. With the new year approaching, Moore hoped 2015 would bring new life to the program.

After he concluded, there was a knock on the door. Coach Moore opened the door for the men. "Guys, meet our new assistant coaches."

"Ed?! Rummy?!' Riley spat.

"Ohhhh shit! Riley!" Rummy called over to Riley.

"Wassup everybody" Ed greeted the team.

Cody tapped Coach Moore on the shoulder.

"These guys are coaches?" he asked.

"They sure are. This Ed Wuncler the Third and Gin Rummy."

"My granddaddy built this school!" Ed bragged.

"Iraq war veterans. They were also accomplished high school wrestlers."

"Hell yeah we were" Rummy agreed. "Thanks for havin' us, y'all!"

The team gave Ed and Rummy a round of applause.

Riley grinned at the sight of his niggas joining the team. Perhaps wrestling will be even more fun now.


	5. Chapter 5

The time had come for Woodcrest Central's first wrestling meet of the season. This was going to be a conference dual meet against a school in their conference called Parkville. A dual meet was where the two teams would pit starting lineups comprising of all required weight classes against each other. In middle school, there were 19 weight classes: 65 lbs, 70 lbs, 75 lbs, 80 lbs, 85 lbs, 90 ls, 95 lbs, 100 lbs, 105 lbs, 112 lbs, 119 lbs, 126 lbs, 135 lbs, 145 lbs, 155 lbs, 167 lbs, 185 lbs, 215 lbs, and 275 lbs.

By the time this first meet had come around, Riley had been going to wrestling practice for 2 weeks. A grueling 2 weeks, he had learned a lot. He had learned how to set up and shoot single leg takedowns, underhook technique, front headlock, and a personal favorite of his, the hip toss throw. Having Ed the third and Gin Rummy join the coaching staff made practice fun yet awkward. During drilling, the two men would help kids out yet they would also start fighting about even the stupidest shit such as dinner options. That fighting soon escalated into wrestling which escalated into fist fights. It was all entertaining though. Also, Riley managed to get some insight into how Ed and Rummy had wrestling backgrounds.

That night after their debut at practice, they gave Riley a ride home and told him all about their wrestling history.

"Riles, I was a state champ in wrestling my senior year of high school" Ed gloated.

"Man, you lying!" Rummy interjected. "Your ass only 'won' by injury default!"

"Pfff I still won though."

"What ya mean?" Riley asked from the backseat.

"I was at weight class 189. I was up against top-ranked Nick Munster. I beat him in the third period" Ed replied.

"Nigga, you was losing 10-0 by the third period! I was there watching!" Rummy argued. "Last 40 seconds, you got desperate enough to try and launch the guy and you did. You got Munster in a headlock and just fucking launched him! You threw him so hard, that he broke his back when he landed so you won by injury default."

"I still won" replied Ed as he switched lanes.

"Aye Rummy, was you good at wrestling?" Riley asked.

"Sure was man! I didn't weigh as much as Ed's fatass back then. I wrestled at 130 lbs. We went to the same high school so we were team captains. I was a 3 time state qualifier and I placed my senior year."

"He only took third" added Ed.

"Man, still better than you winning unfairly! Face it, you shoulda taken second. I had a really tough bracket. The evidence of competition depth is the competition depth of evidence."

"That don't make sense" said Riley.

"Whatever! Bottom line, we was both studs."

"How come neither you wrestle in college?"

"We wanted to join the Army" replied Ed. "And because, fuck college!"

"We could've maybe…." Sighed Rummy. "Maybe a D3 school. Our grades was just awful."

"So why you here coaching at my school?"

"We wanted to help out" replied Rummy.

"We need the extra money" replied Ed.

In the present, Riley followed his team to weigh in. They had just arrived at Woodcrest South, their biggest rival. First on their conference meet list for the season, Woodcrest South was going to be a tough team according to Coach Moore. With a fair amount of talent influx to the school over the years, the school was a fairly dominant powerhouse when it came to middle school wrestling in the state of Maryland. The original middle school in Woodcrest, the school and its wrestling program had been around several years longer than Woodcrest Central. Undeterred, Coach Moore had put his team through arduous practices the last 2 weeks as preparation. Despite being a supposed powerhouse, Central had slipped away with a victory last year. In the words of Coach Moore, they had go back and "claim Woodcrest South" once again.

On the bus, Coach Moore explained how the dual meets will work. First, they will determine what weight class to start at by randomly drawing a weight class from a hat like a lottery. Then, JV would wrestle first and varsity would follow afterwards.

Inside South's locker room, Riley and the team filed in and they passed their awaiting adversaries. Because it was a boys' locker room, Riley saw no sign of Cindy McPhearson. He couldn't help but feel interested in seeing her wrestle; the idea of it anyway. Ed and Rummy were around too. Rummy was with Coach Moore while Ed was in the hallway having a smoke in secret. The Woodcrest coaches met up with Coach Moore and they exchanged greetings and determined the starting weight class for the evening. Riley noticed his team beginning to strip down to only socks and underwear. "Aye, what the hell's this?!" he demanded with a look of disgust.

"We're weighing in, retard" Butch Magnus coldly answered.

A couple minutes, the coaches returned to their respective teams.

"Team, we're starting at 80 lbs. Line up by weight starting with 80 lbs" Coach Moore ordered his team. The team formed 2 separate lines: varsity on the roght and JV on the left. Immediately, one of the lighter boys, Dustin Kent got in the front of the line. He weighed 80 lbs. Riley, in a semi-confused state, found himself fourth from the front in the JV line. Recently, he had certified to wrestle at 90 lbs. He was told that he would have to make weight. Feeling slightly skeptical, Riley tried his best to make weight. Last night, he skipped a second helping of Kernel's Fried Chicken. After Dustin Kent weighed in, Riley's friend Juan Munoz weighed in at 85 lbs. It was Riley's turn.

Brushing off a sudden feeling of butterflies in his stomach, Riley stepped on the scale.

"88.7 . You're good" the Woodcrest South coach said to him. Skipping that second helping of fried chicken worked out in Riley's favor. After Riley weighed in for JV, the varsity 90 pounder for Central named Ben Collins weighed in. Collins was on weight too. Riley tried to linger back to see who he would be wrestling. He managed to get a glimpse of a skinny Caucasian boy with black hair. Collins stayed back to see who he would be wrestling.

"Umm Coach?" the Woodcrest South coach said to Coach Moore.

"What's up? No varsity 90 pounder for you?"

"We have a female weighing in for varsity at 90 lbs. She's waiting in the girls' locker room."

"Okay. Duly noted." Collins had heard every word of that conversation.

As Riley made his way back to Central's changing area, Ben Collins tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey Riley. Did I hear you say you know some girl wrester?" he asked almost sheepishly.

"Yeah she goes to dis school. Her name's Cindy McPhearson. Why you ask nigga?"

"I think I'm facing her." Riley stopped dead in his tracks. _Cindy was on varsity?!_ Riley took a deep breath.

"Aight, calm down Ben. She's a girl. Don't be scared of no girls, nigga! You a seventh grader anyways! Dat hoe should be scared of you!"

"Yeah, you're right! Thanks Riley." With Collins out of his way, Riley focused on changing for the meet. Last week, everyone was given a team singlet and uniform warm ups. The warm ups consisted of loose fitting track pants with a matching loose fitting jacket that somewhat reminded Riley of basketball jumpsuits. Riley had never been a fan of 1 piece clothing but he had to admit, the team singlets were pretty cool. They were Adidas nylon performance singlet that had a solid red body and 3 white stripes going down both sides. On the back, the singlets had the words "Woodcrest Central" etched in white. The varsity singlets were also made by Adidas but they had a solid red body and a single white horizontal line that ran along the middle. The word "Central" was also etched to the front in white letters and "Wildcats" was etched on the back.

Riley put on his JV singlet and threw on his shoes. He then followed the team back out of the locker room and to the main gym. Headgears were required for wrestling. Unfortunately for Riley, Robert had been too cheap to buy him a headgear so Riley was stuck with a used headgear from the school that smelled like ass. It was some shitty black Matman signature foam headgear with 4 straps and a chin strap.

Woodcrest South's colors were blue and gold so Riley saw blue and gold everything when he walked into the gym. South had set up a single mat. JV would obviously go first and varsity soon after. South's mat had a similar design to Central's: a main body color (in this case, blue), a gold circle going around the perimeter edge, and a black small center circle with the opposing home (green) and away (red) designation spots. The bleachers were starting to fill up with Woodcrest Central and Woodcrest South fans alike. Sporting events between these two rival schools always drew large crowds. Riley detected Huey in the Central crowd. He remembered Granddad saying the previous night that he's ditching Riley's meet for a date but Huey might go. And there Huey was in place of Granddad.

Up in the bleachers, Huey stared back at Riley. Excited and glad that his brother was doing something with his life, Huey was keeping his fingers crossed that Riley would stick with wrestling. Also from the bleachers, he saw Jazmine but he didn't bother to talk to the mulatto stat girl.

Riley kept up with the team. Cody was unavailable to talk as he had some music in and Riley respected the kid enough to not bother him at the time. Riley noticed what appeared to be South's JV team slowly but surely warming up. Also, he had his first Cindy sighting. He saw Cindy wearing some varsity warm up (unfortunately) and for some reason, she was talking to the stat girl (hoe), Jazmine. Riley didn't know why, but he couldn't help but think that Cindy looked different somehow. He hadn't seen her in about a month. The sight of his friend talking to one of his least favorite people on Earth made Riley's blood boil. Alas, they were friends anyways for some reason. Riley had to focus on wrestling anyways.

With his shoes already laced up, Riley wandered out onto the mat with the rest of the JV squad. Just as Coach Moore had described it during that first day of practice, the JV team mostly consisted of sixth graders. There was 1 seventh grader named Kevin Hansen but he was a first year wrestler and JV needed a 155 pounder so he was their guy. However, the JV squad did not have every weight class filled. Out of the 19 middle school weight classes, they had 2 open spots. They had no 185 pounder and no 215 pounder. Luckily, they had a 275 pounder in the form of Butch Magnus while some Mexican named Arthur Quintana was on varsity for that weight.

Feeling ready, the team began jogging as part of the warm up routine. Ed and Rummy wandered over to supervise the team. After running 6 laps, the team did some random stance movement individually. Eventually, Ed played some game on his iPhone while Rummy still paid attention to the kids.

"Okay, y'all grab a partner and get some drilling in. Drill those shots to drill in the idea of beating these mothafuckas" ordered Rummy.

The boys complied and transitioned into drilling wrestling moves ranging from takedowns, breakdowns, escapes, and turns. Riley was paired with the 95 pounder named Andy Vigil, a fellow sixth grader. Riley drilled his favorite takedowns to a breakdown or an instant pin if he drove Vigil straight to his back. After 15 minutes of drilling, the teams were ordered to clear the mat. The referee had arrived.

"Can I get captains?" the referee ordered each team. 2 boys from Woodcrest South's side arrived in the middle of the mat. Neither of them were Riley's kid though. Rummy responded by sending Hansen and surprisingly, Riley out to the middle.

In the middle, Riley spaced out. He shut out the referee's seemingly endless bullshit about good sportsmanship in order to focus on his own match. The time had come for him to see if he actually liked wrestling. _If I lose, I don't know what then_ Riley thought to himself. Riley shook each of the South kids' hands and made his way back to the team bench. The dual meet was about to start. 80 pounders from both teams checked in. While his team cheered on Dustin Kent, Juan Munoz and Riley paced around to stay warm.

"Yo I'm nervous as fuck nigga" Juan said to Riley.

"Can't help you much, man" said Riley. He had to worry about himself.

Soon enough, Dustin Kent won his match by a score of 10-6. With that, Central took the lead over South, 3-0. Now, it was Juan's turn to wrestle. Riley paused in his thinking to watch Juan begin. Juan nervously shook his opponent's hand and the ref blew the whistle to start. Immediately, the inexperienced Hispanic boy was manhandled by his opponent's aggressively strong hands that collar tied him. Feeling trapped, Juan did not really move.

"Let's work here, kid!" Rummy yelled at Juan, not aware of the latter's actual name. He didn't know a lot of the kids by name aside from Riley and a couple varsity kids.

"Let's go Juan!" some of the Central kids shouted at their teammate.

Finally, Juan figured out how to break free of the kid's collar tie by passing both elbows out of the way. Unfortunately for Juan, this left him exposed. Juan's kid posted off of Juan's arms dangling in the air and he was in on a double immediately. Before Juan could even react, the South kid transitioned to a train double, ran through Juan and drove him to his back. Juan was pinned before he could even react. The ref slapped the mat and called the pin and the South boy was met by thunderous applause from his team. South was now in the lead, 6-3. Now, Riley was up. Riley pulled the straps up on his singlet and slipped his headgear on.

Riley was smart enough to know that Juan probably wasn't going to last very long so he had gotten most of his warm ups off prior to the pin. He beat his opponent to the head table and checked in and then made his way onto the mat. The ref acknowledged him, told him to put on the red ankle band. Riley did so. Finally, Riley's opponent ran out onto the mat. Woodcrest South's coach seemed to give the ref some signal Riley couldn't understand but he shrugged it off. The ref tapped the South boy on the shoulder and gave him the green ankle band. The boy put the strap on in silence. Taking the silence as something like sizing up, Riley felt even more ready to pummel this kid. The ref had the boys shake hands and the match got underway.

In the crowd, Huey watched Riley's opponent's odd behavior and he figured it out fairly easily.

Riley started picking up a few perks from his friend Cody. As soon as the match commenced, Riley got down on 1 knee and made a little lunge to get the kid moving. This worked as the Woodcrest South boy seem to back away, feeling intimidated. Feeling like he had this kid on the run, Riley attempted the tie up he practiced so many times during wrestling practice. With his head digging for inside control, Riley was feeling aggressive. In a sudden feeling of fearlessness, Riley did a slight lunge and shot in on a single leg to the South boy's right side.

"Good Riley!" Rummy yelled from the corner. Apparently, Ed was in the bathroom and he was missing the meet.

Riley's head was to the kid's inside so his head was driving into the kid's ribs as he came up with the leg. The boy made a half ass attempt at sprawling but he was no match for Riley's quickness. Now that he had the kid's 1 leg captured, Riley raised the leg even higher. Feeling ambitious, he tried some move Cody showed him where he transitioned by gripping the leg with only 1 arm while his other hand grabbed the kid's head. With that 1 arm capturing the kid's head in somewhat of a headlock, Riley drove the kid down to the mat using the single leg and the head. The boy landed on his hip which was dangerous in wrestling. Using the opportunity, Riley quickly shoved the kid onto his back. The boy's shoulder blades touched the mat simultaneously and the ref called the pin. Riley pushed himself off the rapidly gasping boy.

"Yeah , yeah, yeah!" Riley declared. He won his first match ever! The kid seemed completely oblivious to Riley's bragging cheer.

"Okay good sportsmanship here" the ref said to Riley. He patted the South boy on the shoulder and had him and Riley shake hands. Riley shook the kid's hand but the kid seemed very off for some reason. He was still very quiet. But, he won! Woodcrest Central was now in the lead once again, 9-6. After Riley somewhat unwillingly shook the South coach's hand, he made his way back to the team bench where he was showered with praise. Back on youth basketball, Riley may have been a mediocre player but he still appreciated kids praising him. He could get used to all the apparent praise in wrestling.

"Well down man!" Rummy said to Riley, giving him a fist pound. Before he sat down, Riley was greeted by Cody Warner.

"Good win Riley!"

"Thanks Cody. That kid sucked. I did your thing nigga."

"I saw. Perfectly done too."

"Thanks."

"Gotta go man."

"Aight." Riley put his warm ups back on and sat with the team. Right now, Andy Vigil was wrestling.

Vigil wound up losing by pin in the second period.

Despite pins by Riley, Butch Magnus, and Kevin Hansen along with a couple decision wins, Woodcrest Central JV fell to Woodcrest South by a score of 38-27.

Coach Rummy gathered the team around for a briefing while Coach Moore departed to go pump his varisty up.

"Aight guys, this was your first meet. I know it sucks to lose and it does, but, you're supposed to learn shit from losing." The kids seemed to understand his point. "I mean you can't criticize awrestling plan until the wrestling plan commences and/or fails. Ya know?"

"Awww man. Shit, is the meet over?" Ed Wuncler the Third said as he wandered over to the team.

"Ed! Where the Hell have you been?! You missed the whole fuckin' meet dawg!" Rummy demanded. "I thought you said was gonna take a leak!"

"I did!" protested Ed.

"Oh yeah? Then what's that in your hand?" Rummy gestured to a female supermodel magazine in Ed's left hand.

"Fuck! I mean, I just found this by the ladies room…. Did we win?"

"Does it look like we won?!"

Ed was speechless.

"Anyways" Rummy continued, "the evidence that we at least tried was clearly visible. So good job on that."

"Rummy's right" Riley spoke up. "I was expecting wrestling to be gay but I had fun out there. Not all of us won but we gotta keep our heads up for the next round of shit to come!"

"Amen to that" added Rummy. All the boys nodded to Riley's tidbit of advice.

"Varsity's gonna start" said Ed. "Now there's something to actually do. Where's the popcorn at?"

Ed and Rummy took seats by Coach Moore to assist him in coaching. Riley and the JV team sat on the gym floor to the left of the wrestling mat.

The dual meet began. Right off the bat, the 80 pounder for Central accepted a forfeit ( a free 6 points) because his opponent suddenly had the flu. Then at 85 lbs, Tyler Swanson of Woodcrest Central was pinned by veteran South wrestler, Lukas Van Pelt.

With the score tied 6-6, it was time for the 90 lb bout. Riley saw Cindy McPhearson strap a cloth sack over her air and she put her headgear around it. She had some black and blue Cliff Keen tornado headgear. Riley noticed that Cindy had on a pair of black and yellow aggressor wrestling shoes from Asics. He had to admit, the shoes sort of looked cool. He also thought Cindy looked ridiculous in a female wrestling vest with a singlet over it.

Cindy beat Ben Collins to the mat's center for their match. Cindy shook the ref's hand and prepped herself by doing a couple high jumps. Ben Collins hastily waited for the match to begin. The ref had the two kids shake hands and the match got underway. Right off the whistle, Collins moved head first into Cindy, almost headbutting her. Seemingly anticipating this, Cindy put her hands up and grappled with Collins' arms. Collins must have timed the move because he was able to push past Cindy's reactive response as he dug in for effective inside control via gripping Cindy's head and her bicep and moved her as if he was using a steering wheel. Seeing the opportunity, Collins went for a high c shot, hoping to switch off to a double. Cindy began to sprawl back and Collins lost his footing. As Collins tried to readjust, Cindy stepped over and planted herself on top of Collins and seemingly trapped him. The ref seemed to have a delayed reaction as he suddenly started counting for nearfall points for Cindy.

From the bleachers, Woodcrest South fans roared with cheer.

"That's two!" Cindy's dad boomed from the bleachers.

"Go Cindy!" some woman, probably Cindy's mom screamed.

"What the fuck?!" Riley blurted out from the sidelines as he watched the spectacle.

In the Woodcrest Central crowd, Huey Freeman sat, stunned at Cindy's technique. From his vantage point, this girl seemed underrated.

"Collins, bridge!" Coach Moore screamed desperately to his wrestler.

"Hold him! Just hold him!" the Woodcrest South coach screamed to Cindy.

With Collins underneath her on his back, Cindy edged up the boy's body and towards his head. With her legs draped on his head, she locked her legs up, creating a leg cradle and effectively trapping the struggling Collins. And there it was. The ref called the fall. Cindy got up, shoved Collins aside, smirked, and did a fist pump in celebration. Her first varsity win in sixth grade! Meanwhile on the sidelines, Riley Freeman was speechless and in a state of conniption.

"She's a girl…" Riley said slowly and quietly. Riley sat back down with the rest of the JV team to keep watching the varsity meet. Cindy shook Coach Moore's hand who gave her a nod. Ed and Rummy gave her a pound while Jazmine gave her a smile.

Despite Cindy's and a few of her teammate's best efforts, the Woodcrest South Bulldogs fell to the Woodcrest Central Wildcats by a dual meet score of 30-24. Cody Warner and Arthur Quintana had some of the notable good pins of the night for Woodcrest Central.

After the teams shook hands, Riley waited around for Coach Moore while he talked with the varisty team. By himself, Riley wandered around Woodcrest South's gym. He saw Cindy but the latter only gave him a quick hi and by as she went home with her parents. Still wandering, he began reading all the athletic achievement posters for Woodcrest South. He saw soccer, basketball, cross country, and finally wrestling. He was looking at a list of their state qualifiers, state placers, and state champions. As he skimmed the school's long list, he stopped when he saw the name "McPhearson".

The board read:

2004 STATE CHAMPION: COLIN MCPHEARSON; 126 LBS

2005 STATE CHAMPION: COLIN MCPHEARSON; 135 LBS

2004 and 2005 were a while back but also fairly recent. Riley guessed that this must've been Cindy's brother. Come to think of it, Riley barely knew Cindy had a brother. She must've mentioned him maybe once or twice. He was a lot older than her and Cindy's parents who were both Cornell University graduates, never really thought highly of him. He also lived on his own somewhere near Baltimore supposedly. All Riley knew about Colin McPhearson was that he was a community college dropout. Now he knew that Colin apparently wrestled too and that he was a two time middle school state champ. With this revelation, Cindy being on wrestling kind of made a tad bit more sense to Riley now.

"You saw it too huh?" Riley whirled around to find Huey standing next to him.

"Nigga! Don't you be sneaking up on niggas!" Riley protested.

"I was impressed by her wrestling" said Huey. He nodded to the record board displaying Colin's name. "I guess it runs in the family."

"Pffff say that to Cindy, not me" Riley retorted.

"I heard your reaction. You sounded frightened."

"Nigga I wasn't scared! I was just… pissed at Ben for letting a girl pin his ass!" Huey rolled his eyes.

"Good job tonight" Huey commended somewhat dryly.

"Thanks" Riley said.

"That's the most athletic I've seen you in a while."

"Uhh yeah whatever."

Huey turned and found Jazmine heading over to him and Riley.

"Riley you pinned a deaf kid!" Jazmine scolded. "Hope that makes you feel…. sorry for it!" she yelled, choosing a pathetic insult.

"Pfff like I care! I thought there was something off about dat kid. I thought he was retarded o' some shit."

"He was obviously deaf" stated Huey.

"Huey, how come you didn't join wrestling?" Jazmine asked, changing the subject. "Then you could be on a team and a club with me!"

"That club is no more if you don't remember" Huey coldly replied. "I didn't have the chance to join wrestling."

"Nigga what you talking about?! You could just try it when you a freshman at high school next year!" argued Riley.

"I'll do what I want" responded Huey.

"I think you would make a super awesome wrestler" said Jazmine. "You already like fighting."

"Thanks" sighed Huey.

Jazmine left the boys alone.

"Man nigga, she's right. Why ain't you wrestling?" Riley questioned his brother.

"I gotta go catch the bus back to our neighborhood. See you at home" Huey said as he departed from Riley.

Before Riley left the gym, he took a picture of the Colin McPhearson records with his phone. Next, he hurried to the bus with the rest of the team. It was a Friday and Riley had to get home and get some sleep. The next day, he and his JV team had a single dual meet at home while varsity had some big meet somewhere else.

On the bus ride home, Coach Moore congratulated varsity for their huge win but gave his feedback to JV as well. He commended those that won, Riley included.


End file.
